A complete collection of Star Trek comics all in one small package, readily available and inexpensively–is it possible? The answer coming from Graphic Imaging Technology this Fall is a big yes, with a DVD-ROM with scans of every Trek comic book released from 1967 to 2002 in an easily browsable archive. TrekMovie has an exclusive first look at Star Trek The Complete Comic Book Collection.

This September, GITCorp (Graphic Imaging Technology) is releasing the first of three DVD packages containing archives of the Star Trek comics. This first release, due September 1st, has an expected retail price of $49.99, and contains every single published Star Trek comic book from the first Gold Key Comics in 1967 through to the Wildstorm comics published up until 2002*. The only comics not included in the DVD archive are those from the current Trek comic licensee, IDW. All told, there are over 500 individual issues, comprising one-shot graphic novels, full series, mini-series, and more.

Each issue is being scanned by the company, cover to cover, including all of the advertising, and stored in individual PDF archives. GITCorp is using an interface similar to their prior DVD comic collections to access the PDFs in the collection. The DVDs can be used on both Windows and Macintosh computers.

From the first Gold Keys to the last Wildstorms, all in one box

Putting together a collection spanning four decades has not been an easy task, especially due to the fact that Trek comics have been produced by so many different publishers over the years. According to Ray Pelosi from GITCorp, it has been a daunting to get all the comics and to sort out all the licensing issues required to bring it to market and he thanks CBS Products for all the help they provided to make it all happen.

Every Trek Comic in one box (click to enlarge)

Box Artwork for the first release has just been finalized and TrekMovie has an exclusive first look. The cover, seen above, is based on the cover of the third issue of the original Marvel Comics series (the adaptation of the first Motion Picture). Unfortunately, the original artwork was unusable, but Mike Collins, the original artist, agreed to redo the image for use on the DVD set.

DVD Box inside flap and back (click to enlarge)

More to come from GITOnce this first collection is released, two more are planned to tie in with the upcoming Star Trek movie release. The first of these is an Original Series set, that will contain all of the comic books based on the crew of Captain Kirk, including crossover issues, and will also contain the “Early Voyages” series featuring Captain Pike in the stories that take place not long after the events of the original pilot, “The Cage”. This set is expected to be released around the time of the new movie, and has a suggested retail price of $29.99.

The third collection on the agenda is a movie related set, possibly including images, trailers, and so forth from the new movie. The suggested price would be $9.99, and the set would be available in movie theatres. The precise details have not yet been confirmed, but when they are, we’ll let you know.

Get your collectionStar Trek The Complete Comic Book Collection DVD works with both Windows and Macintosh computers. It arrives September 1st and is available for preorder now from Amazon for $49.95.

“Unfortunately, the original artwork was unusable, but Mike Collins, the original artist, agreed to redo the image for use on the DVD set.”

Sorry, but the original artist on that far superior cover version of Marvel’s Star Trek #3 was Bob Wiacek, not Mike Collins. Wiacek is still working in the field (I just picked up Justice Society of America Annual #1 which he inked) so I don’t get why Collins was asked to redraw it instead.

This cover art is just awful. I think it would’ve been much better to commission fan-favorite cover artist Jerome Moore who produced dozens of the best covers for DC and Malibu in the 80’s and 90’s. Mike Collins only ever contributed to about ten issues of Star Trek-related comics (and his work there was far better than the coloring book-like illustration seen here).

HOWEVER! This is a brilliant idea and I’m pleased as can be that this is being released! I’ll just probably toss the box out.

Wow. That’s pretty impressive. I have a similar collection of Mad Magazine on CD roms, and makes for real easy reading. Can’t wait to read some of the old Gold Keys again, and I won’t need my reading glasses to do it!

The cover art on the box is absolutely horrible. I’ll bet someone in the marketing dept. has a major ego to stroke and created that cover, or they just have no respect for the comics medium in general. There are a hundred trek comic artists out there who could have done a better job than that cheap looking crap they decided to use. I’m surprised they didn’t include the headline ‘WAM, POW, ZING! Comics aren’t For Kids Anymore!’ in the headline of their press release.

18
Alex can clarify but I believe the answer is yes. There is going to be a lot of product coming out associated with ‘classic trek’ next spring and it appears GIT is just trying to get in on the action. The TOS only set will also be cheaper than the ‘complete’ set released in September.

fur example, on one dire mission, tha’ Enterprize crew is knocked oot by an alien energy (I wuz eight- so I wuzn’t original then!) and I had Lord Leighton’s “Flaming June” snoozin’ in tha’ panel ta’ illustrate tha’ action (or lack thereof)…
then in tha’ next panel I had Poynter’s “Cave of tha’ Storm Nymphs” and a caption aboot tha’ aliens stealing all tha’ goodies on tha’ ship whilst it lists away in space…

When I started using cubist works, things got a wee little crazy…

however, this trend in DVD collections is very interesting… Could it be done fur Harpers magazine? How’s aboot Popeye? Ahhhh… I recall so many old Spider-Man adventures now… haven’t seen ‘em in decades… and who can forget Rodney Rat, tha’ Blimey Limey who spoke in all Rhymey?

It would be amazing if they put together a collection like this of assorted other Star Trek publications, such as the technical manuals. I remember as a kid having a few and being upset when some if them got lost I’d damaged. Plus, there were, at least back then, more books and guides than you could possibly hope to afford (as a kid) and definitely more than you can find in stores today (as a, ehm, bigger kid, let’s say). ;-)

25. skeptik –
“It would be amazing if they put together a collection like this of assorted other Star Trek publications, such as the technical manuals.”

I agree. A collection of all the “Star Trek: The Magazine” issues from the late 90s (not to be confused with “Star Trek Magazine” currently being published) and the British “Star Trek Fact Files” combined with all the Pocket oversized non-fiction books (Encyclopedia, Chronology, the awesome out-of-print “Spaceflight Chronology” from 1980, the aforementioned Technical Manuals, etc) would be super-fantastic.

Could also include the old CD-ROM material which won’t play on more recent computers (the Omnipedia, TNG Technical Manual with the 3-D tour of the 1701-D).

Great idea. I never would’ve expected this comic book DVD collection so I won’t rule out the possiblity that this too could become a reality.

Ha! That reminded me of some fan-fic I illustrated back in the late 80’s. I used Pre-Raphaelite works as the inspiration (mostly by Dante G. Rosetti) for a Troi/Riker romance story though I doubt anyone ‘got it’.

This is curious. The article states that everything in all these comics is included (including ads!) yet the cover to Marvel’s ST#3 was “unusable”? Must be some legal tangle but it still doesn’t explain why a new illustration wasn’t commissioned and someone else’s art was simply redrawn by a different artist (as I mentioned above Bob Wiacek was the original artist on that cover, not Michael Collins).

Redrawing another artist’s work without clearly labeling the new piece as an homage (by signing it “Michael Collins after Bob Wiacek” for example) is real comic industry faux pas. Comic book legend Jack Kirby ended his historic 1960’s run at Marvel after they had Herb Trimpe redraw a Kirby Hulk poster without crediting the original artist. I’m just sayin’, there’s a precedent and this could be seen as a kind of insult to Mr. Wiacek.

33. AJ –
I seem to remember a set of Star Trek Blueprints from the 70s (with many non-canon designs included) as well as Rick Sternbach’s TNG Blueprints that I bet we could also include in our hypothetical collection.

And yes, the above set apparently includes all the DC and Marvel titles.

Uh Yes! The Gold Keys…have a few myself. Glad to see that there is a new media outlet for Star Trek comics. Have to admit, putting all them together like this is very fresh and look forward to getting them! I wonder though if they can make them smell like old comic books…….what a cool deal that would be :)

I am really stoked for these! I really just want the original series stuff, so that second set sounds like the one for me. Here’s a tech question for you guys:

Are there any portable readers for this type of stuff? I’d love to be able to just load up all of these to a reader and be able to read these whenever and wherever I might be without having to go to a computer or boot up a laptop.

Well, I care but that’s speaking as a comic collector of thirty years and a guy with two art degrees. Maybe for Star Trek fans it’s no big deal but for comic fans a cover is pretty important and with the huge inventory of artists involved in Star Trek comics over the decades to choose from it’s a little puzzling and disappointing that the producers of this collection apparently don’t ‘get’ what’s important to comics fans.

A minor quibble, I’ll admit, but the completist in me would’ve loved seeing a new Jerome Moore cover for the box art.

I may have been a bit unclear when I noted that “the original art was unusable” — from what I understand, the original artwork was actually lost, and they only had the actual cover version, with other stuff on it.

I’m told that CBS would not approve that particular art, and that their marketing peeps requested an Enterprise with nothing else on it. Mike Collins (who did, as noted, several Trek covers and issues — I was under the impression he did that cover originally, and my bad, I was wrong :) ) was asked to redo the image for the cover. As I understand it, he redid the original cover almost exactly, and then they had to remove the image of Earth that was visible behind (for CBS), and a few other things. It is possible that the (new) original version of the cover will be available on the DVD as a bonus though.

Also, I’m told that the two X-Men crossovers _are_ in the set, just not listed in the inside flap.

Finally — Forgiveness published in late 2002? Mine has a cover date of “November 2001″, and an interior copyright of “2001” (no month listed).

I picked it up about a year ago, so don’t know the original release timeline — was it delayed for a year or more or something?

I wonder if they’ll include the audio files from the record sets? I have the records (but no record player) and was unaware that there was a comic version that went along with them… I got mine at a second-hand store years ago and there was no mention of comics being included in the set. Very cool!

RE: “Finally — Forgiveness published in late 2002? Mine has a cover date of “November 2001″, and an interior copyright of “2001″ (no month listed).”

I got the date from the Grand Comics Database (essentially the imdb.com for comics) — it has Oct 2002 as the publication date (which matches perfectly with the “Every comic book July 1967 through October 2002″ copy on the box above) — but the information is incomplete and, admittedly, may be in error.

Please, NO Alex Ross!!!
For those of us in the comics industry, let me say that we are sick to death of him being on anything, and for being very overrated in many cases… and he never worked on the books. Gordon Purcell, Anyone?

Hardcover published late 2001. Paperback reprint Oct 2002. According to GIT, that’s the logic behind it too.

Re: newspaper comic strips and UK Joe90 comics

CBS could not arrange the licensing rights for these in time. GIT has complete sets of these, and is working with CBS to arrange the licensing in the hopes of putting out a legal set of these next year, but, as usual, that all depends on how the licensing stuff works out.

Re: Audio from the record sets

As I understand it, the audio is unavailable at this time for similar reasons to the newspaper comic strips.

Thanks for that info, Alex (54) – sounds hopeful; it would be interesting to see those – from the little I’ve seen the artwork is very good but the stories are a little eccentric (eg Dave Bailey as a regular, the Enterprise landing) – due to the writers having little source material to go on, Star Trek not having appeared yet on UK TV at the time they were written.

The cover is definitely assuming a lot about comic book readers/buyers, and it’s not a very informed or fair assumption.

The cover of this set is the most important piece of art in the whole set to someone considering a purchase. It’s the image that has been chosen to represent everything contained in the product, and was very carefully chosen over EVERY OTHER PIECE OF ART inside the box. That’s a pretty important choice for a marketing/design team, and they chose an image reminiscent of a third grade ‘Math Blasters’ educational game.

The cover says,
“Are you a kid or an underdeveloped adult? Then you’ll love STAR TREK!”

Forgive me, but I work in advertising, and I can smell this stuff a mile away.

61. EHH – August 5, 2008
“Are there any Trek comics that are well loved?”

There are some real gems in this collection. Walter Koening wrote a Chekov story for DC in the early 80s as did Trek novelist Diane Duane. I really enjoyed the Marvel/Paramount Comics “Star Trek: The Early Years” series with Captain Pike that ran for about 13 issues. Even Farnk Miller did the art once during Marvel’s first run around 1981. The late 90s’ had a fantastic run of issues written by Peter David that are hysterical. The Annuals were usually always pretty enjoyable (TNG visual effects superviser Dan Curry provided one beautifully painted cover) and there’s a lot of higher end graphic novels included here too.

That’s not to say it’s all gold. There’s a fair amount of crap in the mix, too. Inaccuracies abound in the campy Gold Key stories and in the initial TNG mini-series (largely written and drawn before any episodes had even aired yet).

Are the “Who’s Who in Star Trek” mini-series included, I wonder? I can’t see why they won’t be. Some really nice art there, too (including a great Khan by current Assignment: Earth writer/artist John Byrne and some by a just-starting-out Tod McFarlane).

But man, what an impressive concept for a product. I’m amazed that they could cut through all the potential legal tangles of old licensing arrangements and so on … must have been a nightmare in paperwork :)

Anyone know what resolution the scans are? I know I’m being a fogey, but I still wince when I remember my disappointment at the National Geographic CD archive … the scans of every page were there, but the resolution was so low (and with JPEG heavy-lossy compression, no less) that many portions were entirely illegible.

If these turn out to be well-done, readable scans, I have my VISA card held at the ready to own this puppy.

This is a great idea that all of the comicbook publishers should be considering. I’d certainly go for a .pdf DVD. That’s not to say I’d never buy graphic novels again or even double up, though, as there’s a lot to be said for an actual book that can be carried around!.

But for people like me, who are limited by living space, these discs would be wonderful.

I’d love to see some of the Marvel comics collections I bought as black and white no-frills ‘Essentials’ albums released in full colour on disc. An uncensored disc of all their 1970s run of horror comics would be a start.

I mentioned my love of Tomb of Dracula earlier. I’d be delighted to have all of those with unaltered artwork and all the additional material that wasn’t included: ie all the tie-in Nightstalkers and Blade stories and the additional appearances of the characters in later comicbooks after the regular run finished.

I’m still smarting at the fact that, after four Essentials collections, they didn’t bring out a fifth where the characters meet Dr Strange, Wolverine and so on!

67. Dom –
“This is a great idea that all of the comicbook publishers should be considering.”

I completely agree. I have a soft spot in my heart for ‘golden age’ comics (comics produced from roughly 1935-1955) which are often pricey and difficult to come by. There have been attempts over the past couple decades to reprint some of this material but the colors always look wrong and the glossy archival paper lack that wonderful aged patina of an actual vintage comic. Scans of actual comics with all their original printing errors really appeals to me — much more than the cheap black and white reprints of Marvel Essentials or DC’s Showcase Presents. But like #66 S. John Ross, my only experience with this kind of thing is with the National Geographic CD-ROMs from a decade ago and I’m hoping that the technical issues he mentioned are absent from these.

What a great way to be able to re-read all of the old comix without having to dig the boxes out, get them out of the sleeves, risk dog-earing them or worse…… plus I’ll get to read all of the publications after I quit buying comics in 1995.

If DC has all of their Superman archives, this would be something else I’d probably buy even though it would cost a lot more…

One of my favorites was an issue from DC, showing the final adventure on the way back to earth, at the end of the 5 year mission. It involved Decker coming into his place on board ship, the return of Koloth, and the Talosians and Pike! The klingons had found Talos IV, and learned the secrets of the Talosians!!

Great issue.

#65 Dom
True, forgive me :) I’m just sick of his art being on anything, just to use his name to help sell it. Ick. I still say Gordon Purcell is the only… forgive me, Logical choice for the cover.

Dave Cockrum (R.I.P.) did the original ST:TMP #1 cover art which Collins based his reworking on. It’s unfortunate, as Cockrum was inked by Klaus Janson–who did a lousy job of outlining Cockrum’s pencils.

Cockrum was an incredible artist whose style changed over the decades. I had the pleasure of seeing actual ST sketches from him in the 1980s. His NCC-1701 (TOS and movie era) were true and accurate. The inking jobs by others ruined his pencils.

Cockrum was also a phenomenal talent in capturing the actual look of the TOS crew. Those TMP-era issues from Marvel weren’t the best quality, but Cockrum’s pencils always shined, imho.

Cockrum was a good man. I’d have to see Klaus Janson’s work on that to see the what you speak of. He kind of imposed his unique style and could be a bit heavy handed on some artists but I really like his work. He did some killer stuff with Gil Kane and Frank Miller. I always felt he made Miller better.

Since we seem to have the comic book crowd here…and because I mentioned it too late in the thread it deserved to be in….does anyone else but me think the Vyans in the “Empath” story were influenced by Jack Kirby’s Skrulls? Wrinkly chins and all.

i agree this is a great idea. you would never get the chance own, collect or even afford to buy these as individual items and it would take ages to collate. they would also be of varying standards of overall condition.

#59 — Both X-Men crossovers are supposed to be on the set. I’ll confirm when I get a copy to review.

#66 — As per the previous line, when I get a review copy (sometime in the next couple of weeks if all goes well), I’ll let you know how good the scans actually look. I’ll inquire as to their resolution right now though.

Not only is this collection a great idea, but it’ll likely make a lot of money. I’m not a comic book fan by any means, but I’ve browsed enough bookstores over the years to have enjoyed one or two issues. I think a lot of people will be picking this up if it’s advertised properly.

As #74 said, most people will never have the chance to see most of these comics, so this comic collection is a great and fun opportunity for lovers of the genre.

#79 – um, saving shelf space? Keeping a couple of dusty comic book long boxes out of the garage?

There’s a slow shift from paper to digital comics going on right now. For example, Marvel has put up an archive (subscription based) of back issues which can be viewed. There’s a growing community of scanners who serve up issues via torrents, etc.

Me, I’d MUCH rather have comics on DVD. Put the disc in the computer, read a few issues (instead of pulling them in/out of storage, in/out of their polybags, not worrying about damaging the resale value of the issues, perhaps even selling them off to earn some pocket change), then put the disc away. Total space savings, ease of use and (hopefully) easy to read images. And with a computer, I can magnify the images if I’m having any problems reading the small text.

If the PDFs aren’t poisoned by Adobe’s hell-on-earth DRM, one way to enjoy this would be to email a batch of them to your iPhone or iPod touch. Or maybe they’d transfer into the photo library. The black-and-white Kindle wouldn’t be up to this.

With a decent size widescreen monitor, you can comfortably read two pages of a comic book on it. My Macbook Pro has a 15-inch monitor and I’d set the Slideshow function on Preview to run them in ‘book mode.’

And 1701 over Gotham City (70) Yeah, I’d love to see the ToD artwork in colour, even if it was rather good in B/W too! Pluss I’d like it if they issued the horror comics without the nudity censored. It was hardly that explicit and it added a certain frisson to the material!

There’s even stuff like old 2000AD I’d like to read. You never know, this could prove revolutionary in terms of getting comic book archive material out there to the customer.

I mean, I could feasible run a load of .pdfs on to my laptop and read them on the train. There might even eventually be a way to display them on future versions (and equivalents) of Sony Readers!

#79: For some of us (though, clearly, not all), the “real fun” of a comic book depends on the work of the writers, artists, letterers, colorists and editors … not the offset printing process or the presence of staples.

That “growing community” of scanners pirating comics via bitTorrent is damaging to an already suffering industry.

Not to say that no one should ever download scanned collections of stuff that’s more difficult to find, but it would be nice to see more people supporting their local comics retailers (who should also offer sets like these for sale).

I am so going to buy this when it comes out. I have a nice collection of the original comics as is, but I don’t have a complete set. So this is a must have.

Regarding the cover art, which is lacking (as was most of the Marvel art during that first run, IMHO), instead of Alex Ross (whose art I love) how about the former Trek book cover artist Keith Birdsong. His art is amazing.

I’m with Gotham–Gordon Purcell would have drawn a sweet cover! But maybe the art was handled in the UK, where Collins lives.
I saw that IDW was doing a Trek collection called THE BEST OF PETER DAVID. Hopefully, they’ll do a collection of the best of Gordon Purcell too.

I’m not the Scott from post #17, but I agree that the cover art is poor. the perspective is wrong for the saucer section — it’ s lying “back” too much. I think it was a cheat by the artist so that the secondary hull could be visible from that angle, but it’s not working. I’d have much preferred a nice collage by the artist who does those great IDW comic covers these days, Joe Corroney. Those are just the right mix of comic book art and modern design for a project like this.

As for these DVD comic collections, Marvel has put out several of them in recent years. Here’s a link to amazon’s list:

Although I’ll always prefer good old comic books, this will still be a sweet reference to have (plus, let’s be honest, many of the old comics are just too damn expensive to buy in the collector’s shops). Kudos to the company for making this a Mac-friendly release too. (Then again, Trek was always Mac friendly back in the TNG days.).

Great concept, except that I won’t be reading Gold Key’s cacca comic books; they are THE worst licensed books ever made. Bad art, bad stories, and bad characterization are the best reasons why. I’d also advise fellow fans NOT to click on them-just look at the Marvel, DC/Wildstorm stuff instead. Now there’s great art and story, not just doody that takes up space on a rack.

When this comes out in stores (I don’t have no fracking credit cards!) I’ll be buying it.